LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

PRINCETON,     N.    J. 

Presented  by 


Inlnmnn  tljr  ]^xm,  null  Inlumnn  tljB  ^JrmljtL 


A   LECTUR 


REV.  JAMES  HAMILTON,  D.D.,  F.L.S., 

MINISTER  OF  THE  NATIONAL  SCOTCH  CHURCH, 
REGENT  SQUARE,  LONDON. 


DELIVERED    BEFORE    THE 


YOUNG  MEN'S  CHRISTIAN  ASSOCIATION, 


EXETER    HALL,    FEB.    4,    1851. 


BOSTON: 

PRESS    OF    T.    R.   MARVIN, 

42  Congress  Street. 
1851, 


SOLOMON  THE  PRINCE 


SOLOMON  THE  PREACIIEE. 


There  is  no  season  of  the  year  so  exquisite  as  the 
first  full  burst  of  Summer :  when  east  winds  lose 
their  venom,  and  the  firmament  its  April  fickleness ; 
when  the  trees  have  unreefed  their  foliage,  and  under 
them  the  turf  is  tender ;  when,  before  going  to  sleep, 
the  blackbird  wakes  the  nightingale,  and  night  itself  is 
only  a  softer  day ;  when  the  dog-star  has  not  withered 
a  single  flower,  nor  the  mower's  scythe  touched  one  ; 
but  all  is  youth  and  freshness,  novelty  and  hope  —  as 
if  our  very  earth  had  become  a  bud,  of  which  only 
another  Eden  could  be  the  blossom  —  as  if,  with  all 
her  green  canvas  spread,  our  island  were  an  argosie, 
floating  over  seas  of  balm  to  some  bright  Sabbatic 
haven   on  the  shores  of  Immortality. 

With  the  Hebrew  commonwealth,  it  was  the  month 
of  June.  Over  all  the  Holy  Land  there  rested  a  bliss- 
ful serenity — tlie  calm  which  follows  when  successful 
war  is  crowned  with  conquest  —  a  calm  which  was  only 
stirred  by  tlie  proud  joy  of  possession,  and  then  hal- 
lowed and  intensified  again  by  the  sense  of  Jehovah's 
favor.     And  amidst  this  calm  the   monarch  was  en- 

3 


SOLOMON   THE    PRINCE, 

ehrined,  at  once  its  source  and  its  symbol.  In  the 
morning  he  held  his  levee  in  his  splendid  Basilica  — 
a  pillared  hall  as  large  as  this.*  As  he  sate  aloft 
on  his  lion-guarded  throne,  he  received  petitions 
and  heard  appeals,  and  astonished  his  subjects  by 
astute  decisions  and  weighty  apothegms,  till  every 
case  was  disposed  of,  and  the  toils  of  kingcraft 
ended.  Meanwhile,  his  chariot  was  waiting  in 
the  square  ;  and,  with  their  slioeless  hoofs,  the 
light  coursers  pawed  the  pavement,  impatient  for 
their  master ;  whilst,  drawn  up  on  either  side,  pur- 
ple squadrons  held  the  ground,  and  their  champing 
char2:ers  tossed  from  their  flowino;  manes  a  dust  of 
gold.  And  now,  a  stir  in  the  crowd  —  the  straining 
of  necks  and  the  jingle  of  horse-gear  announce  the 
acme  of  expectation  ;  and,  preceded  by  the  tall  pano- 
ply of  the  commander-in-chief,  and  followed  by  the 
elite  of  Jerusalem,  there  emerges  from  the  palace, 
and  there  ascends  the  chariot,  a  noble  form,  arrayed 
in  white  and  in  silver,  and  crowned  with  a  golden 
coronet,  and  the  welkin  rings,  "  God  save  the  King ! " 
for  this  is  Solomon  in  all  his  glory.  And  as,  through 
the  Bethlehem  gate,  and  adown  the  level  causeway, 
the  bickering  chariot  speeds,  the  vines  on  either  side 
of  the  valley  give  a  good  smell,  and  it  is  a  noble 
sight  to  look  back  to  yon  marble  fane  and  princely- 
mansions  which  rear  their  snowy  cliffs  over  the  capi- 
tal's new  ramparts.  It  is  a  noble  sight,  this  rural 
comfort  and  that  civic  opulence  —  for  they  evince  the 
abundance  of  peace  and  the  abundance  of  riojhteous- 

*  See  1  Kings  viii.  ;  Josephus'  Antiquities,  Bk.  viii.  chaps.  5 — 7  5 
and  Fergusson's  "  Palaces  of  Nineveh  Restored/'  (1851,)  pp.  225 — 
232. 

4 


AND  SOLOMON  THE  PRKACHER. 

ncss.  And  when,  tliroujj^li  orcliards  and  corn-fields, 
the  progress  ends,  the  shouting  concourse  of  the 
capital  is  exchanged  for  tiie  delights  of  an  elysian 
hermitage.  After  visiting  his  far-come  favorites  — 
the  "  ai)es  and  the  peacocks,"  —  the  hright  birds 
and  curious  quadrupeds  which  share  his  retire- 
ment ;  after  wandering  along  the  terraces  where, 
under  the  ripening  pomegranates,  roses  of  Sharon 
blossom,  and  watching  the  ponds  where  fishes  bask 
amid  the  water-lilies, —  we  can  imagine  him  retiring 
from  the  sunshine  into  that  grotto  which  fed  these 
reservoirs  from  its  fountain  sealed  ;  or  in  the  spa- 
cious parlor,  whose  fluttering  lattice  cooled,  and 
whose  cedar  wainscot  embalmed,  the  flowing  sum- 
mer, sitting  down  to  indite  a  poem  in  which  celestial 
love  should  overmaster  and  replace  the  earthly  pas- 
sion which  supplied  its  imagery.  Dipping  his  pen 
by  turns  in  Heaven's  rainbow,  and  in  the  prismatic 
depths  of  his  own  felicity,  with  joy's  own  ink,  this 
Prince  of  Peace  inscribed  that  Song  of  Songs  which 
is  Solomon's. 

It  was  June  in  Hebrew  history  —  the  top-tide  of 
a  nation's  happiness.  Sitting,  like  an  empress,  be- 
tween the  Eastern  and  Western  oceans,  the  navies 
of  three  continents  poured  their  treasures  at  her  feet ; 
and,  awed  by  her  commanding  name,  the  drome- 
daries of  Midian  and  Ephah  brought  spontaneous 
tributes  of  spice,  and  silver,  and  precious  stones.  To 
build  her  palaces,  the  shaggy  brows  of  Lebanon  had 
been  scalped  of  their  cedars,  Ophir  had  bled  its  rich- 
est gold.  At  the  magical  voice  of  the  Sovereign, 
fountains,  native  to  distant  hills,  rippled  down  the 
slopes  of  Zion ;  and  miraculous  cities,  hke  Palmyra, 
1*  5 


SOLOMON    THE    PRINCE, 

Started  up  from  the  sandy  waste.  And  whilst  peace, 
and  commerce,  and  the  law's  protection,  made  gold 
like  brass,  and  silver  shekels  like  stones  of  the  street, 
Palestine  was  a  halcyon-nest  suspended  betwixt  the 
calm  wave  and  the  warm  sky ;  Jerusalem  was  a  royal 
infant,  whose  silken  cradle  soft  winds  rock,  high  up 
on  a  castle  tower  :  all  was  serene  magnificence  and 
opulent  security. 

Just  as  the  aloe  shoots,  and  in  one  stately  blossom 
pours  forth  the  life  which  has  been  calmly  collecting 
for  a  century,  so  it  would  appear  as  if  nations  were 
destined  to  pour  forth  their  accumulated  qualities  in 
some  characteristic  man,  and  then  they  droop  away. 
Macedonia  blossomed,  and  Alexander  was  the  flower 
of  Greece  ;  fiery  and  eifeminate,  voluptuous  in  his 
valor,  and  full  of  chivalrous  relentings  amidst  his 
wild  revenge.  Rome  shot  up  in  a  spike  of  glory, 
and  revealed  Augustus  —  so  stern  and  so  sumptuous, 
so  vast  in  his  conceptions,  so  unquailing  in  his  pro- 
jects, so  fearless  of  the  world,  and  so  fond  of  the 
seven-hilled  city, — the  imperial  nest-builder.  Mediae- 
val, martial  Europe  blossomed,  and  the  crusader  was 
the  flower  of  chivalry  —  Richard  of  the  lion-heart, 
Richard  of  the  hammer-hand.  And  modern  France 
developed  in  one  Frenchman,  the  concentration  of 
a  people  vain  and  volatile,  brilliant  in  sentiment,  and 
brave  in  battle  ;  and  having  flowered  the  fated  once, 
the  Gallic  aloe  can  yield  no  more  Napoleons.  So 
with  Palestine  at  the  time  we  speak  of.  Half  way 
between  the  call  of  Abraham  and  the  final  capture 
of  Jerusalem,  it  was  the  high  summer  of  Jewish  sto- 
ry, and  Hebrew  mind  unfolded  in  this  preeminent 
Hebi^w.     Full  of  sublime  devotion,  equally  full  of 


AND    SOLOMO.V    TIIi:     PREACHER. 

practical  saj^acity  ;  the  extemporizer  of  the  noblest 
prayer  in  existence  ;  withal,  the  anthor  of  the  homely 
Proverbs  ;  able  to  mount  up  on  Rapture's  ethereal 
pinion  to  the  region  of  the  scrapliim,  but  keenly 
uhve  to  all  the  details  of  business,  and  shrewd  in  his 
human  intercourse  ;  sumptuous  in  his  tastes,  and 
splendid  in  costume,  and,  except  in  so  far  as  intel- 
lectual vastitude  necessitated,  a  certain  catholicity  — 
the  patriot  intense,  the  Israehte  indeed  :  like  a  Colos- 
sus on  a  mountain-top,  his  sunward  side  was  the 
^lory  toward  which  one  jMillennium  of  his  nation 
had  all  along  been  climbinfj,  —  his  darker  side,  with 
its  overlappini^  beams,  is  still  the  mightiest  object  in 
that  nation's  memory. 

You  have  seen  a  blight  in  summer.  The  sky  is 
overcast,  and  yet  there  are  no  clouds ;  nothing  but 
a  dry  and  stifling  obscuration  —  as  if  tlie  mouth  of 
some  pestilent  volcano  had  opened,  or  as  if  sulphur 
mingled  with  the  sunbeams.  "  The  beasts  groan ; 
the  cattle  are  oppressed."  From  the  trees  the  new- 
set  fruit  and  the  remaining  blossoms  fall  in  an  unno- 
ticed shower,  and  the  foliage  curls  and  crumples. 
And  whilst  creation  looks  disconsolate,  in  the  hedge- 
rows the  heavy  moths  begin  to  flutter,  and  ominous 
owlets  cry  from  the  ruin.  Such  a  blight  came  over 
the  Hebrew  summer.  By  every  calculation  it  should 
still  liave  been  noon  ;  but  the  sun  no  longer  smiled 
on  Israel's  dial.  There  was  a  dark  discomfort  in  the 
air.  The  people  murmured.  The  monarch  wheeled 
along  with  greater  pomp  than  ever  ;  but  the  popular 
prince  had  soured  into  the  despot,  and  the  crown  sat 
defiant  on  his  moody  brow ;  and  stiff"  were  the  obei- 
sances, heartless  the  ho&annas,  which  hailed  him  as 

7 


SOLOMON    THE    PRINCE, 

he  passed.  The  ways  of  Zioii  mourned;  and  wliilst 
grass  was  sprouting  in  the  temple-courts,  mysterious 
groves  and  impious  slirines  were  rising  every  where  : 
and  whilst  lust  defiled  the  palace,  Chemosh  and 
Ashtaroth,  and  other  Gentile  ahominations,  defiled 
the  Holy  Land.  And  in  the  disastrous  eclipse, 
beasts  of  the  forest  crept  abroad.  From  his  lurking- 
place  in  Egypt  Hadad  ventured  out,  and  became  a 
Ufe-long  torment  to  the  God-forsaken  monarch.  And 
Rezin  pounced  on  Damascus,  and  made  Syria  his 
own.  And  from  the  pagan  palaces  of  Thebes  and 
Memphis,  harsh  cries  were  heard  ever  and  anon, 
Pharaoh  and  Jeroboam  taking  counsel  together, 
screeching  forth  their  threatenings,  and  hooting  in- 
sults, at  which  Solomon  could  laugh  no  longer.  For 
amidst  all  the  gloom  and  misery  a  message  comes 
from  God  :  the  kingdom  is  rent  ;  and  whilst  Solo- 
mon's successor  will  only  have  a  fag-end  and  a  frag- 
ment, by  right  divine  ten  tribes  are  handed  over  to  a 
rebel  and  a  runaway. 

What  led  to  Solomon's  apostasy  ?  And  what, 
again,  was  the  ulterior  effect  of  that  apostasy  on  him- 
self T  As  to  the  origin  of  his  apostasy  the  Word  of 
God  is  explicit.  He  did  not  obey  his  own  maxim. 
He  ceased  to  rejoice  with  the  wife  of  his  youth ;  and 
loving  many  strangers,  they  drew  his  heart  away  from 
God.  Luxury  and  sinful  attachments  made  him  an 
idolater,  and  idolatry  made  him  yet  more  licentious  : 
until,  in  the  lazy  enervation  and  languid  day-dreaming 
of  the  Sybarite,  he  lost  the  perspicacity  of  the  sage, 
and  the  prowess  of  the  sovereign ;  and  when  he  woke 
up  from  the  tipsy  swoon,  and  out  of  the  swine-trough 
picked  his  tarnished  diadem,  he  woke  to  find  iiis 
8 


AND  SOLOMON  THE  PREACHER. 

faculties,  once  so  clear  and  limpid,  all  perturbed,  his 
strenuous  reason  paralyzed,  and  his  healthful  fancy- 
poisoned.  He  woke  to  find  the  world  grown  hollow, 
and  himself  grown  old.  He  woke  to  see  the  sun 
bedarkened  in  Israel's  sky,  and  a  special  gloom  en- 
comi)assing  himself.  He  woke  to  recognize  all  round 
a  sadder  sight  than  winter  —  a  blasted  summer.  Like 
a  deluded  Samson  starting  from  his  slumber,  he 
felt  for  that  noted  wisdom  which  signalized  his  Naz- 
arite  days,  but  its  locks  were  shorn  ;  and,  cross  and 
self-disgusted,  wretched  and  guilty,  he  woke  up  to 
the  discovery  which  awaits  the  sated  sensualist  :  he 
found  that  when  the  beast  gets  the  better  of  the  man, 
the  man  is  cast  oft'  by  God.  And  like  one  who  falls 
asleep  amidst  the  lights  and  music  of  an  orches- 
tra, and  who  awakes  amidst  empty  benches  and  the 
scattered  fragments  of  programmes  now  preterite  — 
hke  a  man  who  falls  asleep  in  a  flower-garden,  and 
who  opens  his  eyes  on  a  bald  and  locust-blackened 
wilderness, — the  life,  the  loveliness,  was  vanished, 
and  all  the  remaining  spirit  of  the  mighty  Solomon 
yawned  forth  that  edict  of  the  tired  voluptuary  : 
—  "  Vanity  of  vanities  !  vanity  of  vanities  !  all  is 
vanity  !  " 

There  are  some  books  of  the  Bible  which  can 
only  be  read  \nth  thorough  profit,  when  once  you 
have  found  the  key.  Luther  somewhere  tells  us, 
that  he  used  to  be  greatly  damped  by  an  expression 
in  the  outset  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans.  The 
apostle  says,  "  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  gospel ;  for 
therein  is  the  righteousness  of  God  revealed."  By 
»'  righteousness "    Luther    understood   the    justice   of 


SOLOMON    THE    PRINCE, 

God  —  his  attributes  of  moral  rectitude  ;  and  so 
understanding  it,  he  could  scarcely  see  tiie  superior- 
ity of  the  gospel  over  the  law,  and  at  all  events  his 
troubled  conscience  could  find  no  comfort  in  it.  But 
when  at  last  it  was  revealed  to  him  that  the  term 
here  alludes  not  to  God's  inherent,  but  his  out-wrought 
righteousness  —  that  it  means  not  justice,  but  God's 
justifying  righteousness  —  the  whole  epistle  was  lit  up 
with  a  flood  of  joyful  illumination  ;  and  the  context, 
and  many  other  passages  which  used  to  look  so  dark 
and  hostile,  at  once  leaped  up  and  fondled  him  with 
friendly  recognition  ;  and  to  Luther  ever  after  the 
gospel  was  glorious  as  the  revelation  and  the  vehicle 
to  the  sinner  of  a  righteousness  divine.  And,  to  take 
another  instance  :  many  read  the  Book  of  Job  as  if 
every  verse  were  equally  the  utterance  of  Jehovah  ; 
and  sayings  of  Bildad  and  Zophar  are  often  quoted 
as  if  they  m  ere  the  muid  of  the  Most  High  ;  entirely 
forgetting  the  avowed  structure  of  the  book  —  forget- 
ting that  through  five  and  thirty  chapters  the  several 
collocutors  are  permitted  to  reason  and  wrangle,  and 
darken  counsel  by  words  without  knowledge,  in  order 
to  make  the  contrast  more  striking  when  Jehovah  at 
last  breaks  silence  from  on  high,  and  vindicates  his 
own  procedure.  But  when  you  advert  to  its  real 
structure  —  when  you  group  the  difterent  elements 
of  its  poetic  painting  —  when,  under  the  canopy  of 
a  dark  cloud,  you  see  the  patriarch  blasted  and  life- 
weary,  and  his  three  friends  assailing  him  with  calum- 
nious explanations  of  his  sore  affliction :  but  above 
that  cloud  you  see  Jehovah  listening  to  his  loyal  ser- 
vant, and  his  pious,  but  narrow-minded  neighbors 
—  listening  with  a  look  of  fatherly  fondness,  and 
10 


AND  SOLOMON  THE  PREACHER. 

from  heaveirs  cornucopia*  ready  to  shower  on  his 
servant's  head  the  most  overwhelming  of  vindications 
—  the  blessings  twice  repeated,  which  Satan  snatched 
away  :  when  you  see  this,  and  when  you  know  that 
Jehovah  is  to  be  the  last  speaker,  instead  of  nervously 
striving  to  torture  into  truths  the  mistakes  of  Bildad 
and  Zophar,  and  Job  himself,  you  feel  that  their  mis- 
rakes  are  as  natural  and  as  needful  to  the  plan  of  the 
hook,  as  are  all  the  cross-purposes  and  contradictory 
colloquies  of  a  well-constructed  drama.  And  when 
so  understood,  you  feel  that  all  the  rather  because  of 
the  misconceptions  of  the  human  speakers,  the  book 
is  eloquent  with  divine  vindication,  and  teaches  what 
Cowper  sings  so  touchingly  — 

"  Ye  fearful  saints,  fresh  courage  take  ! 
The  clouds  ye  so  much  dread 
Are  big-  with  mercy,  and  shall  break 
In  blessings  on  your  head. 

"  Blind  unbelief  is  sure  to  err. 
And  scan  his  work  in  vain  ; 
God  is  his  own  interpreter, 
And  he  will  make  it  plain." 

Perhaps,  no  portion  of  Holy  Writ  more  needs  a 
key  than  the  book  which  has  suggested  the  subject  of 
our  lecture.  On  the  one  hand,  "  Ecclesiastes  "  has 
always  been  a  favorite  book  with  infidels.  It  was  a 
manual  with  that  coarse  scoffer,  Frederick  the  Great 
of  Prussia ;  and  both  Volney  and  Voltaire  appeal  to 
it  in  support  of  their  sceptical  philosophy.  Nor  can 
it  be  denied  that  it  contains  many  sentiments  at 
seeming  variance   with    the    general    purport    of  the 

*  Job  xlii.  14,  Keren-happuch  ;  i.  e.  Horn  of  Plenty. 

11 


SOLOMON    THE    PRINCE, 

Word  of  God.  "Be  not  righteous  overmuch;  why 
shouldest  thou  destroy  thyself  ?  "  "  All  things  come 
alike  to  all :  there  is  one  event  to  the  righteous  and 
to  the  wicked ;  to  him  that  sacrificeth,  and  to  him  that 
sacrificeth  not."  "  There  is  a  time  for  every  thing. 
What  profit  hath  he  that  worketh  in  that  wherein  he 
laboreth  1  "  "  As  the  beast  dieth,  so  dieth  man.  Do 
not  both  go  to  one  place  ]  "  *'  A  man  hath  no  better 
thing  than  to  eat  and  drink  and  be  merry."  These 
texts,  and  many  like  them,  are  quoted  by  the  moral- 
ists of  expediency ;  by  the  fatalist,  the  materialist,  the 
Pyrrhonist,  tlie  epicure. 

On  the  other  hand,  many  able  commentators  have 
labored  hard  to  harmonize  such  passages  with  the 
sayings  of  Scripture ;  I  may  add,  they  have  labored 
hard  to  harmonize  them  with  other  sayings  of  Solo- 
mon, and  other  passages  of  tliis  self-same  book.  But 
I  cannot  help  thinking  they  have  labored  in  vain. 
For  the  moment,  and  when  reading  or  listening  to 
some  eloquent  exposition,  you  may  persuade  yourself 
that  such  texts  are,  after  all,  only  pecuhar  and  para- 
doxical ways  of  putting  important  truths  ;  but  when 
Procrustes  has  withdrawn  his  pressure,  and  the  re- 
luctant sentence  has  escaped  from  the  screw  and  lever, 
it  bounds  up  elastic,  and  looks  as  strange  and  ungainly 
as  ever. 

These  are  the  closing  words  of  "  Ecclesiastes : " 
"  Let  us  hear  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter : 
Fear  God  and  keep  his  commandments ;  for  this  is 
the  whole  of  man.  For  God  shall  bring  every  work 
into  judgment,  with  every  secret  thing,  whether  it  be 
good,  or  whether  it  be  evil."  This  is  the  conclusion 
of  the  matter,  and  a  mse  and  wholesome  conclusion, 
12 


AND  SOLOMON  THE  PREACHER. 

Worthy  of  Him  wlio  s.iid,  •♦  Seek  first  tlie  kinj^dom  of 
God  and  his  rijrljteousness,  and  all  these  things  shall 
be  added  unto  you."  But  what  is  the  "  matter  "  of 
which  this  is  the  **  conclusion  "  1  To  ascertain  this 
we  must  cfo  back  to  the  beginninf^.  There  you  read, 
"  I  the  preacher  was  king  in  Jerusalem,  and  I  gave 
my  heart  to  search  out  by  wisdom  concerning  all 
things  that  are  done  under  heaven.  Then  I  said  in 
my  heart,  Go  to  now,  I  will  prove  thee  with  mirth  : 
therefore  enjoy  pleasure,"  &:.c.  In  other  words,  you 
find  that  this  matter  was  a  long  experiment,  which 
the  narrator  made  in  search  of  the  sumnium  bonuin, 
and  of  which  "  Ecclesiastes "  records  the  successive 
stages.  But  how  does  it  record  them  ?  By  virtually 
repeating  them.  In  the  exercise  of  his  poetic  power 
the  historian  reconveys  himself  and  his  reader  back 
into  those  days  of  vanity,  and  feels  anew  all  that  he 
felt  then  ;  so  that,  in  the  course  of  his  rapid  mon- 
ologue, he  stands  before  us,  by  turns,  the  man  of 
science  and  the  man  of  pleasure,  the  fatalist,  the  ma- 
terialist, the  sceptic,  the  epicurean,  and  the  stoic,  with 
a  few  earnest  and  enlightened  interludes  ;  till,  in  the 
conclusion  of  the  whole  matter,  he  sloughs  the  last 
of  all  these  "lying  vanities,"  and  emerges  to  our 
view,  the  noblest  style  of  man,  the  believer  and  the 
penitent. 

This  we  believe  to  be  the  true  idea  of  the  book. 
We  would  describe  it  as  a  dramatic  biography,  in 
which  Solomon  not  only  records,  but  reenacts,  the 
successive  scenes  of  his  search  after  happiness ;  a 
descriptive  memoir,  in  which  he  not  only  recites  his 
past  experience,  but  in  his  improvising  fervor  be- 
comes the  various  phases  of  his  former  self  once 
2  13 


SOLOMON    THE    PRINCE, 

more.  He  is  a  restored  backslider,  and  for  the 
benefit  of  his  son  and  his  subjects,  and,  under  the 
guidance  of  God's  Spirit,  for  the  benefit  of  the 
church,  he  writes  this  prodigal's  progress.  He  is  a 
returned  pilgrim  from  the  land  of  Nod,  and  as  he 
opens  the  portfolio  of  sketches  which  he  took  before 
his  eyes  were  turned  away  from  viewing  vanity,  he 
accompanies  them  with  lively  and  realizing  repe- 
titions of  what  he  felt  and  thought  during  those 
wild  and  joyless  days.  Our  great  Edmund  Burke 
once  said  that  his  own  life  might  be  best  divided 
into  "  fyttes  "  or  "  manias  ;  "  that  his  hfe  began  with 
a  fit  poetical,  followed  by  a  fit  metaphysical,  and 
that  again  by  a  fit  rhetorical ;  that  he  once  had  a 
mania  for  statesmanship,  and  that  this  again  had 
subsided  into  the  mania  of  philosophical  seclusion. 
A-nd  so,  in  his  days  of  apostasy,  the  intense  soul  of 
Solomon  developed  in  a  fit  of  study,  succeeded  by 
a  fit  of  luxury.  He  had  fits  of  grossness  and  refine- 
ment, a  mania  of  conviviality,  a  mania  of  misanthro- 
py. He  had  a  fit  of  building,  a  fit  of  science,  a  fit 
of  book-making  ;  and  they  all  passed  off  in  collapses 
of  disappointment  and  paroxysms  of  downright  misery. 
And  here,  as  he  exhibits  these  successive  tableauxy 
these  fac-similes  of  his  former  self,  like  a  modern 
lyrist  on  St.  Cecilia's  day,  he  runs  the  diapason  of 
his  bygone  frenzies,  and  in  the  successive  strophes 
and  antistrophes,  as  it  were,  feels  his  former  frenzies 
over  again,  in  order  that,  by  the  very  vividness  of 
the  representation,  we  may  be  all  the  better  "  ad- 
monished." * 

*  Chap.  xii.  12. 
14 


AND  SOLOMON  THE  PREACHEH. 

"  The  preacher  was  kiiij^  over  Israel,  and  because 
he  was  wise,  lie  taught  tlie  people  knowledge.  He 
long  sought  to  find  out  acceptable  words,  and  that 
which  was  written  was  upright,"  *  a  true  story,  a 
real  statement  of  the  case.  "  And  by  these,  my  son, 
be  admonished."  Do  you,  my  son,  accept  this 
lather's  legacy  ;  and  do  you,  my  people,  receive  at 
your  monarch's  hand  this  "  Basilicon  Doron,"  this 
autobiography  of  your  penitent  prince.  These  chap- 
ters are  "  words  of  truth ; "  revivals  of  my  former 
self —  reproductions  of  my  reasonings  and  reg^rets  — 
my  fantastic  hopes  and  blank  failures,  during  that 
sad  voyage  round  the  coasts  of  vanity.  "  By  these 
be  admonished."  Without  repeating  the  guilty  exper- 
iment, learn  the  painful  result  —  listen  to  the  moans 
of  a  melancholy  worldling ;  for  I  shall  sing  again 
some  of  those  doleful  ditties  for  which  I  exchanged 
the  songs  of  Zion.  Look  at  these  portraits  —  they 
are  not  fancy  sketches  —  they  are  my  former  self, 
or,  rather,  my  former  selves  :  that  lay  figure  in  the 
royal  robes,  surmounted  first  by  the  lantern-jaws  of 
the  book-worm,  now  exchanged  for  the  jolly  visage 
of  the  gay  gourmand,  and  presently  refining  into  the 
glossy  locks  and  languid  smile  of  the  Hebrew  exqui- 
site :  now  chuckling  with  the  merriment  of  the  laugh- 
ing philosopher,  curling  anon  into  the  bitter  sneer  of 
the  cynic,  and  each  in  succession  exploding  in  smoke ; 
not  a  masque,  not  a  mummery,  not  a  series  of  make- 
believers,  but  each  a  genuine  evolution  of  the  various 
Solomon  —  look  at  these  pictures,  ye  worldlings,  and 


Chap.  i.  1,  2,  12,  13. 

15 


SOLOMON    THE    PRINCE, 

as  ill  water  face  answers  to  face,  so  in  one  or  other 
of  these  recognize  your  present  Ukeness  and  foresee 
your  destiny.* 

There  is  little  difference  in  men's  bodily  stature. 
A  fathom,  or  thereabouts  —  a  little  more  or  a  little 
less  —  is  the  ordinary  elevation  of  the  human  family. 
Should  a  man  add  a  cubit  to  this  stature,  he  is  fol- 
lowed along  the  streets  as  a  prodigy ;  should  he  fall 
very  far  short  of  it,  people  pay  money  for  a  sight  of 
him,  as  a  great  curiosity.  But,  were  there  any  exact 
measurement  of  mental  statures,  we  should  be  struck 
by  an  amazing  diversity.  We  should  find  pigmy 
intellects  too  frequent  to  be  curiosities.     We  should 


*  "  All  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,"  and  it  is  not 
the  less  "  profitable  "  because  some  of  it  is  the  inspired  record  of 
human  infirmity.  Thus,  in  the  73d  Psalm,  which  is  just  a  lesser 
Ecclesiastes,  Asaph  says  —  "Behold,  they  are  the  ung-odly,  who 
prosper  in  the  world ;  they  increase  in  riches.  Verily  I  have 
cleansed  my  heart  in  vain,  and  washed  my  hands  in  innocency." 
But  at  last  he  recovers  his  "  feet  which  were  almost  gone  ;  "  and 
Asaph's  "  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter  "  is,  "  For,  lo,  they  that 
are  iar  from  thee  shall  perish :  thou  hast  destroyed  all  them  that 
go  a  whoring  from  thee.  But  it  is  good  for  me  to  draw  near  to 
God  :  I  have  put  my  trust  in  the  Lord  God,  that  I  may  declare  all 
thy  works."  Nor  is  Ecclesiastes  the  less  "  profitable  for  correction 
and  reproof  and  instruction  in  righteousness,"  because  a  large  pol-- 
tion  of  it  consists  of  the  dark  reasonings  and  futile  experiments  of 
one  whose  "steps"  had  actually  "slipped."  Apart  from  the  inci- 
dental instruction  with  which  its  successive  portions  aboujid,  its  great 
lesson  must  be  sought  in  the  very  contrast  betwixt  its  intermediate 
reasonings  and  its  grand  conclusion.  Whatever  may  be  the  merits 
of  the  view  above  given,  the  lecturer  is  persuaded,  that  the  better 
we  understand  the  plan  of  every  Bible  book,  we  shall  be  the  more 
convinced  of  the  plenary  inspiration  of  Scripture.  He  need  scarce- 
ly add,  that  there  are  other  elements  in  the  structure  of  Ecclesiastes 
which  his  limits  did  not  allow  him  to  develop. 
16 


AND  SOLOMON  THE  PREACHER. 

find  fragile  uiiderstaiuliiigs  to  which  the  grasshopper 
is  a  burden,  and  dwarfish  capacities  unable  to  en- 
compass the  most  common-place  idea  :  whilst,  on  the 
other  hand,  we  should  encounter  a  few  colossal 
minds,  of  which  the  altitude  must  be  taken  not  in 
feet,  but  in  furlongs,  —  tall,  culminating  minds, 
which  command  the  eiitire  tract  of  existing  knowl- 
edge —  minds  whose  horizon  is  their  coeval  hemi- 
sphere ;  or,  loftier  still,  prophetic  minds,  on  which 
is  already  shining  the  unrisen  sun  of  some  future 
century. 

Such  a  mind  was  Solomon.  His  information  was 
vast.  He  was  the  encyclopaedia  of  that  early  age. 
He  was  an  adept  in  the  natural  sciences  — "  he 
spake  of  trees,  from  the  cedar  to  the  hyssop ;  he 
spake  also  of  beasts,  and  of  fowl,  and  of  creeping 
things,  and  of  fishes,"  as  the  sacred  liistorian  simply 
words  it ;  or  as  our  more  pompous  diction  would 
express  it,  he  was  a  botanist,  and  acquainted  with  all 
departments  of  zoology,  from  the  Annelides  up  to 
the  higher  vertebrata.  His  wisdom  excelled  the  wis- 
dom of  all  the  children  of  the  East  country,  and  all 
the  children  of  Egypt.  And  then  his  originality  was 
equal  to  his  information.  He  was  a  poet  :  his 
"Songs"  were  upwards  of  a  thousand.  And  a  mor- 
alist ;  liis  Proverbs  were  three  thousand.  He  was  a 
sagacious  politician  ;  and  as  the  cliief  magistrate  of 
his  own  empire,  he  was  famous  for  the  equity  and 
acuteness  of  liis  decisions.  He  had  a  splendid  taste 
in  arcliitecture  and  landscape  gardening ;  and  his 
enormous  wealth  enabled  him  to  conjure  into  palpable 
reaUties  the  visions  of  his  gorgeous  imagination ; 
2-  17 


SOLOMON    THE    PRINCE, 

whilst,  to  crown  the  w  hole  —  unlike  Moses  and  many 
others,  men  of  stately  intellect,  but  stammering  speech 
—  the  wisdom  of  Solomon  found  utterance  in  lan- 
guage like  itself;  and  whilst  the  eloquence  still  lived 
of  which  the  Bible  has  preserved  some  examples  — 
crowned  students,  royal  disciples,  came  from  the 
utmost  parts  of  the  earth  to  hear  the  wisdom  of 
Solomon. 

Now,  this  man,  so  mightily  endowed  ;  if  you  add 
to  liis  intellectual  elevation  the  pedestal  of  his  rare 
good  fortune,  mounting  the  genius  of  the  sage  on 
the  throne  of  the  sovereign  —  this  peerless  man,  this 
prime  specimen  of  humanity  —  it  would  appear  that 
Providence  raised  up  for  this,  among  other  purposes. 
From  the  day  when  Adam  fell  it  had  been  the  great 
inquiry  among  men.  Where  and  how  to  find  the  true 
Felicity  ?  And  though  the  Most  High  assured  them 
that  they  could  only  find  it  where  they  had  lost  it  — 
in  unison  with  Himself,  and  in  His  conscious  friend- 
ship :  of  this  they  were  quite  incredulous.  It  was 
still  the  problem.  Apart  from  Infinite  Excellence, 
how  shall  we  be  happy  ?  Though  Blessedness  was 
not  far  from  any  one  of  them,  in  delirious  search  of  it, 
men  burrowed  in  gold  mines,  and  rummaged  in  the 
rubbish-heaps,  drilled  deep  into  the  rock,  and  dived 
deep  into  the  sea.  And  though  none  succeeded,  few 
despaired.  There  was  always  an  apology  for  failure. 
They  had  sought  in  the  right  direction,  but  with 
inadequate  appliances.  They  were  not  rich  enough ; 
they  were  not  strong  enough  ;  they  were  not  clever 
enough.  Had  they  been  only  a  little  wealthier  ;  had 
they  been  better  educated ;  had  they  possessed  more 
leisure,  talent,  power  —  they  were  just  about  to  touch 
18 


A^D    SOLOMON    THK     PRKACHEH. 

llic  talisman  :  they  would  have  brought  to  li«i:ht  the 
pliilosophcr's  stone.  And  as  it  is  part  of  man's 
uiijjodliness  to  believe  his  fellow-sinner  more  than  his 
Creator,  the  Most  IIi<jh  provided  an  unimpeach- 
able testimony.  He  raised  up  Solomon.  He  made 
him  healthy  and  handsome  —  wise  and  brilliant.  He 
poured  wealth  into  his  lap,  till  it  ran  over.  He  made 
him  absolute  monarch  of  the  finest  kingdom  which  the 
world  at  that  time  offered  —  and,  instead  of  savages 
and  pagans,  gave  him  for  his  subjects  a  civilized  and 
a  religious  people.  And  that  he  might  not  be  dis- 
tracted by  wars,  and  rumors  of  wars,  he  put  into  his 
hand  a  peaceful  sceptre,  and  saved  him  from  the 
hardships  of  the  field  and  the  perils  of  the  fight.  And 
thus  endowed  and  thus  favored,  Solomon  commenced 
the  search  after  happiness.  Every  thing  except 
godly,  he  devoted  himself  to  the  art  of  enjoyment. 
And  in  carrying  on  his  own  experiment,  he  unwit- 
tingly, but  effectually,  became  God's  demonstration. 
Into  the  crucible  he  cast  rank  and  beauty,  wealth  and 
learning  ;  and,  as  a  flux,  he  added  youth  and  genius  ; 
and  urged  the  furnace  to  its  whitest  glow,  with  all  the 
ardor  of  his  vehement  nature.  But  when  the  grand 
projection  took  place,  from  all  the  costly  ingredients 
the  entire  residuum  was,  Vanity  of  vanities  !  And 
ere  he  left  the  laboratory,  he  made  ink  of  the  ashes  ; 
and  in  the  confessions  of  a  converted  worldling,  he 
Avas  constrained  to  write  one  of  the  saddest  books  in 
all  the  Bible. 

His  first  recourse  was  knowledge.  Communing 
with  his  own  heart,  he  said,  "  Lo,  I  am  come  to  great 
estate,  and  have  gotten  more  wisdom  than  all  they 
that  have  been    before    me    in    Jerusalem :    yea,  my 

19 


SOLOMON    THE     PRINCE, 


heart  had  great  experience  of  wisdom  and  knowledge. 
And  I  gave  my  heart  to  know  (more)  wisdom,  and  to 
know  madness  and  folly  (that  is,  fun  and  satire)  :  I 
perceived  that  this  also  is  vexation  of  spirit.  For  in 
much  wisdom  is  much  grief:  and  he  that  increaseth 
knowledge  increaseth  sorrow."  And,  as  he  adds  else- 
where, "  Of  making  many  books  there  is  no  end  ;  and 
much  study  is  a  weariness  to  the  flesh." 

No,  no.  Carpe  diem.  Life  is  short,  and  learning 
slow.  Quit  that  dingy  study,  and  out  into  the  laugh- 
ing world.  Make  a  bonfire  of  these  books,  and  fill 
your  reed-quiver  with  bird-bolts.  Exchange  the  man 
of  letters  for  the  man  of  pleasure.  And  so  he  did. 
"  I  gave  myself  to  wine,  I  made  me  great  works,  I 
builded  me  houses,  I  planted  me  vineyards."  But 
here,  too,  he  was  destined  to  disappointment.  For 
the  coarse  pleasures  of  the  carouse  and  the  wine-cup 
his  cultivated  mind  had  little  affinity ;  and  when  next 
norning  revealed  the  faded  chaplets,  the  goblets  cap- 
sized, and  the  red  wine-pools  on  the  floor  of  the  ban- 
quet-hall ;  when  the  merry-making  of  yesternight  only 
lived  in  the  misery  of  the  morning,  he  exclaimed, 
"  Such  laughter  is  mad ;  and  such  mirth,  what  docth 
it  1 "  And  so  of  the  more  elegant  pastimes  —  the 
palace,  the  fish-pond,  the  flower-garden,  the  menagerie, 
the  enjoyment  ended  when  the  plan  was  executed ; 
and  as  soon  as  the  collection  was  completed,  the 
pleasure  of  the  collector  ceased.  "  Then  I  looked  on 
all  the  works  that  my  hands  had  wrought,  and  on  the 
labor  that  I  had  labored  to  do  :  and,  behold,  all  was 
vanity  and  vexation  of  spirit,  and  there  was  no  profit 
under  the  sun." 

But  there  still  remained  one  solace.     There  must 
20 


AND    SOLOMON    THE    PllEAClIEK. 

be  sonietliiii^  very  sweet  in  absolute  power.  Though 
the  battle  has  been  going  on  for  six  thousand  years, 
and  the  odds  are  overwhelming  —  a  milhon  resisting 
one  —  yet  still  the  love  of  power  is  so  tremendous,  — 
to  say  to  one,  Go,  and  he  goetli ;  and  to  another,  Do 
tliis,  and  he  doeth  it  —  the  right  to  say  this  is  so  deli- 
cious, that,  sooner  or  later,  the  million  lose  the  battle, 
and  find  the  one  their  master.  Now,  this  ascendency 
over  others  Solomon  possessed  to  a  rare  degree. 
"  The  Preacher  was  king  in  Jerusalem."  He  was 
absolute  monarch  there.  And  to  flatter  his  instinct 
of  government  still  more,  surrounding  states  and  sove- 
reigns all  did  homage  at  Jerusalem.  But  no  sooner 
did  he  tind  his  power  thus  supreme  and  unchallenged, 
than  he  began  to  be  visited  with  misgivings  as  to  his 
successor  —  misgivings  for  which  the  sequel  showed 
that  there  was  too  good  reason.  "  Yea,  I  hated 
all  the  labor  which  I  had  taken  under  the  sun,  be- 
cause I  should  leave  it  unto  the  man  that  shall  be 
after  me.  And  who  knoweth  whether  he  shall  be  a 
wise  man  or  a  fool  1  Yet  shall  he  have  rule  over  all 
my  labor  wherein  I  have  labored,  and  wherein  I 
have  showed  myself  wise  under  the  sun.  This  is  also 
vanity." 

And  1  need  not  say  how  the  experience  of  most 
worldling>»  luis  been  Solomon's  sorrow  repeated,  with 
the  variations  incident  to  altered  circumstances,  and 
the  diminished  intensity  to  be  expected  in  feebler 
men  —  vanity  and  vexation  of  spirit  all  over  again. 
And  as  we  are  sometimes  more  impressed  by  modern 
instances  than  by  Bible  examples,  we  could  call  into 
court  nearly  as  many  witnesses  as  there  have  been 
hunters  of  happiness  —  mighty  Nimrods  in  the  chase 

21 


SOLOMON    THE     PKlNCi:, 

of  Pleasure,  and  Fame,  and  Power.  We  might  ask 
the  Statesman,  and,  as  we  wished  him  a  happy  new 
year,  Lord  Dundas  would  answer,  "  It  had  need  to 
be  happier  than  the  last,  for  I  never  knew  one  happy 
day  in  it."  We  might  ask  the  successful  lawyer,  and 
the  wariest,  luckiest,  most  self-complacent  of  them  all 
would  answer,  as  Lord  Eldon  was  priv^ately  record- 
ing when  the  whole  bar  envied  the  Chancellor,  —  "A 
few  weeks  will  send  me  to  dear  Encombe,  as  a  short 
resting-place  between  vexation  and  tlie  grave."  We 
might  ask  the  golden  millionaire,  "  You  must  be  a 
happy  man,  Mr.  Rothscliild."  "  Happy  !  — me  happy  ! 
What  !  happy,  when  just  as  you  are  going  to  dine 
you  have  a  letter  placed  in  your  hand,  saying,  '  If  you 
do  not  send  me  =£500,  I  will  blow  your  brains  out '  ?  " 
Happy  !  when  you  have  to  sleep  with  pistols  at  your 
pillow  !  We  might  ask  the  clever  artist,  and  our 
gifted  countryman  would  answer  of  whose  latter  days 
a  brother  writes,  "  In  the  studio,  all  the  pictures 
seemed  to  stand  up  like  enemies  to  receive  me.  This 
joy  in  labor,  this  desire  for  fame,  what  have  they 
done  for  him  1  The  walls  of  this  gaunt  sounding 
place,  the  frames,  even  some  of  the  canvasses,  are 
furred  with  damp.  In  the  little  library  where  he 
painted  last,  was  the  word  '  Nepenthe  1  '  written  in- 
terrogatingly with  white  chalk  on  the  wall."  *  W^e 
might  ask  the  world-famed  warrior,  and  get  for  an- 
swer the  "  Miserere  "  of  the  Emperor-monk,t  or  the 
sigh  of  a  broken  heart  from  St.  Helena.  We  might 
ask  the  brilliant  courtier,  and  Lord  Chesterfield  would 
tell  us,  "  I  have  enjoyed  all  the  pleasures  of  the  world, 


*  Memoirs  of  David  Scott.  t  Charles  V. 

22 


AND  SOLOMON  THE  PREACHER. 

and  I  do  not  rcgfret  their  loss.  I  have  been  behind 
the  scenes.  I  have  seen  all  the  coarse  pulleys  and 
dirty  ropes  which  move  the  gaudy  machines ;  and  I 
have  seen  and  smelt  the  tallow  candles  which  illu- 
minate the  whole  decorations,  to  the  astonishment  of 
an  irjnorant  audience."  We  might  ask  the  dazzling 
wit,  and,  faint  with  a  glut  of  glory,  yet  disgusted  with 
the  creatures  who  adored  him,  Voltaire  would  con- 
<lense  the  essence  of  his  existence  into  one  word, 
*'  Enmdy  And  we  might  ask  the  world's  poet,  and 
we  would  be  answered  with  an  imprecation  by  that 
splendid  genius,  who 


"  Drank  every  cup  of  joy,  lieard  every  trump 
Of  fame;  drank  early,  deeply  drank;  drank  draughts 
That  common  millions  might  have  quenched  — then  died 
Of  thirst,  because  there  was  no  more  to  drink." 


But  without  going  so  far  as  these  historic  in- 
stances, I  make  my  appeal  to  all  the  candor  and 
self-knowledge  here  present,  and  I  ask,  Who  is  there 
that,  apart  from  God's  favor,  has  ever  tasted  solid 
joy  and  satisfaction  of  spirit  ?  You  have  perhaps 
tried  learning.  You  have  wearied  your  flesh  ac- 
quiring some  branch  of  knowledge,  or  mastering 
the  arcana  of  some  science ;  and  you  promised 
yourself  that,  when  once  you  were  an  adept,  it  would 
introduce  you  to  a  circle  of  transcendental  friends, 
or  would  drown  you  in  a  flood  of  golden  fame.  You 
won  the  friends,  and  found  them  so  fiill  of  petty 
feuds  and  jealousies,  so  cold-hearted  or  so  coarse- 
minded,  alongside  of  this  special  accomplishment, 
that  you  inwardly  abjured  them,  and  vowed  that 
you    must  follow   learning  for  its  own   rewards ;    or 

23 


SOLOMON    THE    PKINCE, 

you  won  the  fame  —  you  secured  the  prize  — '  you 
caught  the  coveted  distinction,  and  Hke  the  senior 
wrangler,*  you  found  that  you  had  "  grasped  a  shad- 
ow." Or  you  tried  some  course  of  gaiety.  You  said, 
"  Go  to  now  —  I  will  prove  thee  with  mirth  :  therefore 
enjoy  pleasure."  You  dressed  —  you  took  pains 
with  your  appearance ;  you  studied  the  art  of 
pleasing.  But  even  self-love  could  not  disguise 
that  some  rival  was  more  dazzling,  more  graceful 
and  self-possessed,  and  had  made  a  more  brilhant 
impression :  and  you  came  home  mortified  at  your 
own  sheepishness  and  rustic  blundering;  or,  if  con- 
tent to  mingle  passively  in  others'  merriment, 
tattling  with  the  talkers,  and  drifting  along  the 
tide  of  drollery,  was  there  no  pensive  reflection  as, 
late  at  night,  you  sought  your  dwelling  ?  —  did  you 
not  say  of  laughter.  It  is  mad  1  and  of  mirth,  What 
doeth  it  1  Or,  perhaps,  at  some  pleasant  time  of 
year,  you  made  up  a  famous  ploy.  And  the  ex- 
cursion went  off,  but  the  promised  enjoyment 
never  came  up.  Mountain  breezes  did  not  blow 
away  your  vexing  memories,  nor  did  the  soft  sea- 
wind  heal  your  wounded  spirit.  In  the  rapid  train 
you  darted  swiftly,  but  at  the  journey's  end  you 
were  mortified  to  find  that  your  evil  temper  had 
travelled  by  the  same  conveyance.  And  though  it 
was  a  classic  or  a  sacred  stream  into  which  you 
looked,  not  even  Arethusa  nor  Siloah  could  polish 
from  off  your  countenance  the  furrows  of  carking 
anxiety,  or  the  frown  of  crossness  wliich  wrinkled 
there.     The   fact    is,' all  will  be   vanity  to  the   heart 


*  Henry  Martyn. 
24 


AND  SOLOMON  THE  PREACHER. 

which  is  vile,  and  all  will  be  vexation  to  the  spirit 
which  the  peace  of  God  is  not  possessing.  When 
you  remember  how  vast  is  the  soul  of  man,  and 
also  what  a  mighty  virus  of  depradty  pervades  it, 
you  might  as  well  ask,  How  many  showers  ^vill  it 
need  to  make  the  salt  ocean  fresh  1  as  ask,  How 
many  mercies  will  it  need  to  make  a  murmuring 
spirit  thankful  and  happy?  You  may  as  soon  ask, 
How  many  buckets  of  water  must  you  pour  down 
the  crater  of  Etna  before  you  convert  the  volcano 
into  a  cool  and  crystal  jet  (Veaii  7  as  ask.  How  many 
bounties  must  Providence  pour  into  a  worldling's 
spirit  before  that  spirit  will  cease  to  evaporate  them 
into  vanity,  or  send  them  fuming  back  in  complaint 
and  vexation  ? 

"  Attempt  how  vain  — 
With  things  of  earthly  sort,  with  aug^ht  but  God, 
With  aught  but  moral  excellence,  truth,  and  love  — 
To  satisfy  and  fill  the  immortal  soul  ! 
To  satisfy  the  ocean  with  a  drop ; 
To  marry  immortality  to  death  ; 
And  with  the  unsubstantial  shade  of  time, 
To  fill  the  embrace  of  all  eternity  !  "  * 

It  was  autumn  with  the  Hebrew  commonwealth. 
Like  withered  leaves  from  the  sapless  tree,  the  Jews 
easily  parted  from  the  parent  Palestine,  and  were 
blown  about  adventurers  in  every  land  ;  and  like  that 
fungous  vegetation  which  rushes  up  when  nobler 
plants  have  faded,  formaUsm  and  infidelity  were 
rankly  springing  every  where ;  and  it  was  only  a  berry 
on  the  topmost  bough  —  some  mellow  Simeon  or 
Zacharias  —  that  reminded  you  of  the  rich  old  piety. 

*  Pollok's  "  Course  of  Time,"  book  iv. 


SOLOMON    THE    PRINCE, 

The  sceptre  had  not  cjuite  departed  from  .Tudah,  but 
he  who  held  it  was  a  puppet  in  the  Gentile's  hand  ; 
and  with  shipless  harbors,  and  silent  oracles,  with 
Roman  sentinels  on  every  public  building,  and  Ro- 
man tax-gatherers  in  every  town,  patriotism  felt  too 
surely,  that  from  the  land  of  Joshua  and  Samuel,  of 
Elijah  and  Isaiah,  of  David  and  Solomon,  the  glory 
was  at  last  departing.  The  sky  was  lead,  the  air  a 
winding-sheet ;  and  every  token  told  that  a  long 
winter  was  setting  in.  It  was  even  then,  amid  the 
short  days  and  sombre  sunsets  of  the  waning  dynasty, 
that  music  filled  the  firmament,  and  in  the  city  of 
David  a  mighty  Prince  was  born.  He  grew  in  stature, 
and  in  due  time  was  manifested  to  Israel.  And  what 
was  the  appearance  of  this  greater  than  Solomon  1 
What  were  his  royal  robes  ?  The  attire  of  a  common 
Nazarene.  What  were  his  palaces  1  A  carpenter's 
cottage,  which  he  sometimes  exchanged  for  a  fisher- 
man's hut.  Who  were  liis  Ministers  and  his  court 
attendants  ?  Twelve  peasants.  And  what  was  his 
state  chariot  ?  None  could  he  afford  ;  but  on  one 
special  procession  he  rode  on  a  borrowed  ass.  Ah ! 
said  we  so  1  His  royal  robe  was  heaven's  splendor, 
whenever  he  chose  to  let  it  through ;  and  Solomon, 
in  all  his  glory,  was  never  arrayed  like  Jesus  on 
Tabor.  His  palace  was  the  heaven  of  heavens ; 
and  when  a  voluntary  exile  from  it,  little  did  it 
matter  whether  his  occasional  lodging  were  a  rustic 
hovel,  or  Herod's  halls.  If  fishermen  were  his 
friends,  angels  were  his  servants ;  and  if  the  bor- 
rowed colt  was  liis  triumphal  charger,  the  sea  was 
proud  when,  from  wave  to  wave  of  its  foaming 
billows,  it  felt  his  majestic  footsteps  moving ;  and 
26 


AND  SOLOMON  THE  PREACHER. 

when  tlie  lime  had  arrived  for  returiiinn^  to  his  Father 
and  his  (xod,  the  clouds  lent  tlie  cliariot,  and  obse- 
quious airs  upbore  him  in  their  reverent  hands. 
Solomon's  pulpit  was  a  throne,  and  he  had  an  audi- 
ence of  kinjrs  and  (jueens.  Tlie  Saviour's  synaj^oj^ue 
was  a  mountain-side  —  his  pulpit  was  a  j2;rassy  knoll  or 
a  tishing-boat  —  his  audience  the  boors  of  Galilee  ;  and 
yet,  in  point  of  intrinsic  greatness,  Solomon  did  not 
more  excel  the  children  playing  in  the  market-place, 
than  He  who  preached  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
excelled  Iving  Solomon, 

Looking  at  Solomon  as  a  Teacher,  the  first  thing 
that  strikes  us  is,  that  he  was  a  great  querist.  Next 
to  the  man  who  can  answer  a  question  thoroughly,  is 
the  man  who  can  ask  it  clearly.  Our  world  is  full  of 
obscure  misery  —  dark  wants  and  dim  desiderata  :  like 
a  man  in  a  low  fever,  its  whole  head  is  sick,  and  its 
whole  heart  faint ;  but  it  can  neither  fix  exactly  on 
the  focus  of  disease,  nor  give  an  intelligent  account 
of  its  sensations.  But  in  tliis  respect  Solomon  was 
the  mouth-piece  of  humanity.  Speaking  for  himself, 
he  has  so  described  the  symptoms,  that  a  whole  ward 
—  an  entire  world  of  fellow-sufferers  —  may  take 
him  for  their  spokesman.  "  These  are  exactly  my 
feeUngs.  I  have  experienced  all  that  he  describes. 
I  am  just  such  another  fitful  anomaly — just  such  a 
constant  self-contradiction.  One  day  I  wish  time  to 
fly  faster ;  another  I  am  appalled  to  find  that  so 
little  remains.  One  day  I  believe  that  I  shall  die 
like  the  brutes ;  and,  frantic  in  thinking  that  a  spirit 
so  capacious  is  to  perish  so  soon,  I  chafe  around 
my  cage,  and  beat  those  bars  of  flesh  which  enclose  a 
captive   so   god-like ;   I   trv  to   burst  that   cell    wluch 

27 


SOLOMON    THE    PRINCE, 

is  ere  long  to  be  my  sepulchre :  anon  I  am  content, 
and  I  say,  '  Eat,  drink,  and  be  merry,  for  to-morrow 
you  die : '  and  no  sooner  is  the  carnival  over  than  I 
start  up,  conscious  of  my  crime  —  descrying  the  for- 
gotten judgment-seat,  and  aghast  at  my  own  impiety 
in  embruting  an  heir  of  immortality.  One  day  I 
deny  myself,  and  save  up  a  fortune  for  my  son  and 
successor ;  another,  it  strikes  me  he  may  prove  a 
prodigal,  and  I  fling  the  hoard  away.  Now  it  seizes 
me  that  I  must  needs  be  famous ;  and  then  I  grow 
disgusted  with  the  praise  of  fools.  What  will  cure  a 
broken  heart  1  What  will  fill  an  abysmal  gulf  ?  What 
will  make  a  crooked  nature  upright  ?  What  will  re- 
store liis  Creator  unto  man,  and  man  unto  himself?  " 

And  Jesus  answers  :  "  Believe  in  God  and  believe 
in  me,  and  that  faith  will  heal  heart-trouble.  Hunger 
after  righteousness,  and  your  craving  spirit  will  be 
filled.  The  words  that  I  speak  unto  you  are  spirit 
and  life :  imbibe  them,  ponder  them,  delight  in 
them,  and  they  will  satisfy  the  vastest  desires  of 
the  most  eager  soul.  What  will  make  the  crooked 
upright  1  Be  born  again.  What  will  restore  the 
Creator  to  revolted  man  1  God  so  loved  the  world, 
that  he  gave  his  only-begotten  Son,  that  whosoever 
believeth  in  him  should  have  eternal  life."  And 
thus,  one  by  one,  the  great  Evangelist  answers  the 
queries  of  the  great  Ecclesiastes.  And  if  the  sage 
has  done  a  service,  who,  in  articulate  words, 
describes  the  symptoms  of  the  great  disease,  how 
incomparably  greater  is  the  service  done  by  the 
Saviour,  who  prescribes  the  remedy  !  After  all 
Solomon  is  only  an  eloquent  patient;  Jesus  is  the 
Divine  Physician. 


AND  SOLOMON  THE  PREACHER. 

A^ain :  Solomon's  teacliiiinr  is  mainly  neirative. 
Five  centuries  later,  it  was  the  business  of  the  wisest 
Greek  to  teach  his  brethren  knowledc^c  of  their 
ij^norance.  And  so  dexterously  did  he  manaL''e  his 
obli(jue  mirrors  —  so  many  of  his  countrymen  did  he 
surj)rise  with  side-views  and  back-views  of  them- 
selves ;  so  much  fancied  knowledge  did  he  confute, 
and  so  many  Athenians  did  he  put  out  of  conceit 
with  themselves,  tliat  at  last  the  Athenians  lost 
conceit  of  Iiim,  and  killed  the  mortifying  mis- 
sionary. And,  like  Socrates,  Solomon  is  an  apostle 
of  sincerity.  His  pen  is  the  point  of  a  diamond ; 
and  as  it  touches  many  of  this  world's  boasted 
jewels,  it  shows  that  they  are  only  colored  crystal. 
His  sceptre  is  a  rod  of  iron,  and  as  it  enabled  him  to 
command  all  pleasures,  so  it  enables  him  to  prove 
their  nullity ;  and  before  his  indignant  sweep  they 
crash  like  potsherds,  and  dissipate  in  dust.  But 
more  sincere  than  Socrates.  His  tests,  his  probes, 
liis  solar  lamp,  the  Greek  employed  for  his  neigh- 
bors' benefit  ;  such  an  awful  earnestness  had  God's 
Spirit  enkindled  in  the  Hebrew  sage,  that  his  grand 
struggle  was  against  self-deception  ;  and  the  illusions 
on  which  he  spends  his  hottest  fury  are  the  phantoms 
which  have  befooled  liimself.  Socrates  gossips ; 
Solomon  communes  with  his  own  heart.  Socrates 
gets  his  comrade  to  confess ;  Solomon  makes  liis 
own  confession.  And  so  terrible  is  his  intensity, 
that  if  it  be  well  for  our  modern  idoloclasts  and 
showers  up  of  shams  that  there  is  no  Socrates 
now-a-days  to  show  them  to  themselves,  it  will  be 
well  for  us  all  if  we  take  a  pattern  from  Solomon's 
noble  fidelity,  and  if  we  strive  after  his  stern  self- 
3*'  29 


90L0M0N    THE    PRINCE, 

knowledge.  And  yet  the  result  was  mainly  negative. 
He  had  dived  deep  enough  into  liis  nature  to  find 
that  there  was  no  genuine  goodness  there ;  and  from 
the  heights  of  his  stately  intellect  he  swept  a  wide 
horizon,  and  reported  that  witliin  his  field  of  view 
there  was  perceptible  no  genuine  happiness.  If  he 
was  taller  than  other  men,  he  was  sorry  to  announce 
that,  as  far  as  he  could  see,  no  fountain  of  joy  now 
sprang  in  this  desert  :  no  tree  of  life  grew  here- 
away. If  he  was  stronger  than  other  men,  he  had 
bad  news  for  them  ;  he  had  tried  the  gate  of  Eden, 
and  shoved  it  and  shaken  it ;  but  he  feared  no 
mortal  shoulders  could  move  it  on  its  hinges,  nor 
any  human  contrivance  prise  it  off  its  fastenings. 

But  if  Solomon  in  his  teaching  was  mainly 
negative,  Jesus  was  as  mainly  positive.  Solomon 
sliook  his  head,  and  told  what  happiness  is  not  : 
.Tesus  opened  his  lips,  and  enunciated  what  it  is. 
Solomon  said,  "  Knowledge  is  vanity.  Power  is 
vanity.  Mirth  is  vanity.  Man  and  all  man's  pur- 
suits are  perfect  vanity."  .Tesus  said,  "  Humility  is 
blessedness.  Meekness  is  blessedness.  Purity  of 
heart  is  blessedness.  God  is  blessed  for  evermore, 
and  most  blessed  is  the  creature  that  is  likest  God. 
Holiness  is  happiness."  "  We  labor  and  find  no 
rest,"  said  Solomon.  .Tesus  answered,  "  Come  unto 
me,  all  ye  that  labor,  and  I  will  give  you  rest." 
"  All  is  vanity,"  sighed  the  preacher.  "  In  the  world 
ye  shall  have  tribulation,  but  in  me  ye  shall  have 
peace.*'  replied  the  Saviour.  "  What  is  truth  ? " 
asks  Ecclesiastes.  "  I  am  the  truth,"  returns  the 
Divine  Evangelist.  Solomon  was  tall  enough  to  scan 
the  most  of  earth  and  see  an  expanse  of  sorrow; 
3P 


AND  SOLOMON  THE  PREACHER. 

the  Son  of  man  knew  all  that  is  in  heaven,  and 
could  tell  of  a  Comforter  who,  like  a  flask  of  bal- 
sam floating  in  the  sea,  can  fill  with  peace  un- 
speakable the  soul  immersed  in  outward  misery. 
Solomon  could  tell  that  the  gate  of  bhss  is  closed 
against  human  effort.  Jesus  hath  the  key  of  David, 
and  opens  what  Adam  shut ;  and  undertakes  to  usher 
into  the  Father's  propitious  presence  all  who  come 
through  Him.  Solomon  composed  Earth's  epitaph, 
and  on  the  tomb  of  the  species  wrote,  All  is  Vanity. 
Accustomed  to  date  men's  history  from  their  death, 
Jesus  substituted,  All  is  Heaven  or  Hell. 

Nay,  so  positive  was  the  Saviour's  teaching,  that 
in  order  to  understand  him  rightly,  we  must  remem- 
ber that  he  was  not  only  the  Prophet,  but  the  doc- 
trine ;  not  only  the  Oracle  uttering  God's  truth,  but 
his  very  self  that  Truth.  Other  prophets  could 
tell  what  God's  mind  is  :  Jesus  was  that  mind. 
The  law  —  a  portion  of  God's  will  —  was  given  by 
Moses  ;  but  grace  and  truth  —  the  gracious  reality, 
the  truthful  plenitude  of  the  Divine  perfections, 
came  by  Jesus  Christ.  He  was  the  express  image 
of  the  Father.  He  was  the  Word  Incarnate.  And 
to  many  a  query  of  man's  wistful  spirit,  he  was  the 
embodied  answer.  Is  there  any  immortality  to  tliis 
soul  ?  Is  there  any  second  hfe  to  this  body  ?  "  In 
my  Father's  house  are  many  mansions.  I  go  to 
prepare  a  place  for  you,  and  I  will  come  again  and 
receive  you  to  myself."  "I  am  the  Resurrection 
and  the  Life :  he  that  beheveth  in  me  shall  never 
die  :  I  will  raise  liim  up  at  the  last  day."  Is  there 
any  mediation  betwixt  man  and  his  Maker  ?  is  there 
any  forgiveness  of  sins  ?  "  I  am  the  way.  Whatsoever 

31 


SOLOMON    THE    PRINCE, 

ye  shall  ask  the  Father  in  my  name,  he  will  give 
it  you.  Go  in  peace :  thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee." 
Is  there  any  model  of  excellence  exempt  from  all 
infirmity  ?  any  pattern  in  which  the  Most  High 
has  perfect  complacency  ?  *'  He  was  holy  and  harm- 
less, separate  from  sinners.  This  is  my  beloved 
Son,  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased :  hear  ye  him." 

Solomon  was  wise ;  but  Jesus  was  Wisdom. 
Solomon  had  more  understanding  than  all  the 
ancients ;  but  Jesus  was  that  eternal  wisdom  of 
which  Solomon's  genius  was  a  borrowed  spark  —  of 
which  the  deep  flood  of  Solomon's  information 
was  only  an  emitted  rill.  To  which  we  only  add 
the  contrast  in  their  tone.  Each  had  a  certain 
grandeur.  Solomon's  speech  was  regal.  It  had 
both  the  imperial  amplitude  and  the  autocratic 
emphasis,  —  stately,  decisive,  peremptory.  But  the 
Saviour's  was  Divine.  There  was  no  pomp  of 
diction,  but  there  was  a  God-like  depth  of  mean- 
ing ;  and  such  was  its  spontaneous  majesty,  that 
the  hearer  felt.  How  easily  He  could  speak  a 
miracle !  And  miracles  he  often  spake ;  but  so 
naturally  did  they  emerge  from  his  discourse,  and 
so  noiselessly  did  they  again  subside  into  its  current, 
that  we  as  frequently  read  of  men  astonished  at  his 
doctrine,  as  of  men  amazed  at  his  doings.  But' 
though  both  spake  with  authority  —  the  one  with 
authority  as  a  king  of  men,  the  other  with  authority 
as  the  Son  of  God  —  there  is  a  wonderful  difference 
in  point  of  the  pervasive  feeling.  Like  a  Prome- 
theus chained  to  the  rock  of  his  own  remorse,  the 
Preacher  pours  forth  his  mighty  woes  in  solitude, 
and,   truly    human,    is    mainly    piteous    of    liimself. 

32 


AND    S0L0310N    THE    PHEACHKU. 

Consequently  his  enthroned  misery  —  his  self-fibsorhed 
and  stately  sorrow,  moves  you  to  wonder,  ratlier  than 
to  weep ;  and,  like  a  j^ladiator  dying  in  marble,  you 
are  thankful  that  the  sutierer  is  none  of  your  kindred. 
But  though  greater  in  his  sorrows,  the  Saviour  was 
also  greater  in  his  sympathies ;  and  though  silent 
about  his  personal  anguish,  there  is  that  in  his  mild 
aspect  which  tells  each  who  meets  it  —  if  his  grief  be 
great,  his  love  is  greater.  And  whilst  Solomon  is 
so  king-like  that  he  does  not  ask  you  to  be  his  friend, 
the  Saviour  is  so  God-like  that  he  solicits  your 
affection,  and  so  brotherly  that  he  wins  it.  Indeed, 
here  is  the  mystery  of  godliness  —  God  manifest  in 
flesh,  that  flesh  may  see  how  God  is  love  ;  and  that 
through  the  loveliness  of  .Tesus  we  may  be  attracted 
and  entranced  into  the  love  of  God.  O  melancholy 
monarch  !  how  funereal  is  thy  tread,  as  thou  pacest 
up  and  down  thy  echoing  galleries,  and  disappearest 
in  the  valley  of  Death-shadow,  ever  sounchng  — 
Vanity  of  vanities  !  O  Teacher  blessed  !  how  beau- 
tiful  are  thy  feet  on  the  mountains,  publishing  peace  ! 
How  benign  thy  outstretched  hand,  which,  to  the  sin- 
ner weeping  over  it,  proves  God's  golden  sceptre  of 
forgiveness,  and  which  then  clasps  that  sinner's  hand 
and  guides  him  to  glory !  O  Thou  greater  than 
Solomon  !  "  let  me  see  thy  countenance,  let  me  hear 
thy  voice  ;  for  sweet  is  thy  voice,  and  thy  countenance 
is  comely." 

A  greater  than  Solomon.  The  cedar  palace  has 
long  since  yielded  to  the  torch  of  the  spoiler  ;  but 
the  home  wliich  Jesus  has  prepared  for  his  disciples 
is    a    house    not    made    with    hands,   eternal    in    the 

heavens.     Thorns  and  thistles  choke  the  garden  of 

33 


SOLOMON    THE    PRINCE, 

Engedi,  and  the  moon  is  no  longer  mirrored  in 
the  fish-ponds  of  Heshbon  ;  but  no  brier  grows  in 
the  paradise  above,  and  nothing  will  ever  choke  or 
narrow  that  fountain  whence  life  leaps  in  fulness,  or 
stagnate  that  still  expanse  where  the  Good  Shepherd 
leads  his  flock  at  glory's  noon.  And  Solomon  —  the 
splendor  of  his  age — his  grave  is  with  us  at  this 
day ;  his  flesh  has  seen  corruption ;  and  he  must 
hear  the  voice  of  the  Son  of  man,  and  come  forth  to 
the  great  account  :  but  Jesus  saw  no  corruption. 
Him  hath  God  raised  up,  and  made  a  Prince  and  a 
Saviour  ;  and  hath  given  him  authority  to  execute 
judgment,  because  he  is  the  Son  of  man.  And  re- 
verting to  the  allusion  of  our  outset  —  Solomon 
effloresced  from  his  country's  Golden  Age  —  a  greater 
than  Solomon  appeared  when  miry  clay  was  mixing 
with  its  Age  of  Iron.  Solomon  was,  so  to  speak,  an 
effusion  of  his  age,  as  well  as  its  brightest  ornament  : 
the  Son  of  Mary  was  an  advent  and  an  alien  —  a  Star 
come  down  to  blossom  on  a  brier-bush  —  a  root  of 
Deity  from  our  earth's  dry  ground.  But  though  it 
was  the  Hebrew  winter  when  he  came,  he  did  not 
fail  nor  wax  discouraged.  He  taught,  he  lived,  he 
fulfilled  all  righteousness  —  he  loved,  he  died.  It 
was  winter  wheat  ;  but  the  corn  fell  into  the  ground 
ungrudgingly  ;  for  as  he  sowed  his  seeds  of  truth, 
the  Saviour  knew  that  he  was  sowing  the  summer 
of  our  world.  And  as,  one  by  one,  these  seeds  spring 
up,  they  fetch  with  them  a  glow  more  genial  :  for 
every  saved  soul  is  not  only  sometliing  for  God's 
garner,  but  an  influence  for  the  world.  Already  of 
that  handful  of  corn  which  this  greater  Solomon 
scattered  on  the  mountain-tops  of  Galilee,  the  first- 
34 


AND    SOLOMON    THK     PREACHER. 

fruits  are  sj)ringing ;  and  by  and  by  the  fruit  shall 
shake  hkc  Lel)an<)ii,  and  the  Churcli's  citizens  sliall 
be  abundant  as  j^rass  of  the  earth.  On  the  wings  of 
prophecy  \X  is  liastening  towards  us  ;  and  every 
prayer  and  every  mission  speeds  it  on — our  world's 
latter  summer-burst,  our  earth's  perennial  June  — 
when  the  name  of  Jesus  shall  endure  for  ever,  and 
summer  as  long  as  the  sun  :  when  men  shall  be 
blessed  in  Him,  and  all  nations  shall  call  Him 
blessed. 

So  great  is  this  Prince  of  prophets,  that  the  least 
in  his  kingdom  is  greater  than  Solomon.  The  saint 
is  greater  than  the  sage,  and  discipleship  to  Jesus  is 
the  pinnacle  of  human  dignity.  In  Him  are  hid  all 
the  treasures  of  wisdom,  and  all  the  germs  of  unde- 
veloped goodness.  He  is  the  true  theology,  the  perfect 
ethics,  the  supreme  philosophy  ;  and  no  words  can 
limit  the  mental  ascendency  and  moral  beauty  to  which 
that  young  man  may  aspire,  who,  in  all  the  suscepti- 
bility of  an  adoring  affection,  consecrates  himself  to 
the  service  and  society  of  the  Son  of  God.  IMy 
brothers  !  is  it  a  presumptuous  hope  that,  even  whilst 
I  speak,  some  of  you  feel  stirring  within  you  the  desire 
to  join  yourselves  to  blessedness  by  joining  yourselves 
to  Jesus  ?  Is  it  too  much  to  hope  that  some  of  you, 
who  are  Christian  young  men  already,  are  wisliing 
and  praying  that  God  would  make  you  characters  less 
commonplace,  and  render  your  influences  in  your  day 
more  abundant  and  benign  ?  Is  it  too  much  to  hope 
that,  even  from  this  rapid  survey,  some  shall  retire 
with  a  happy  consciousness  —  Blessed  be  God  !  I 
belong  to  a  kingdom  which  cannot  be  moved,  and  am 
embarked  in  a  cause  which  cannot  be  defeated  1     Is 

35 


SOLOMON    THE    PRINCE,    ETC. 

it  too  much  to  hope  that  some  one  who  has  found,  in 
regard  to  godless  enjoyment,  "  All  is  vanity,"  may 
now  be  led  to  exclaim,  with  the  gifted  youth  to  whom 
our  poet-laureate  has  inscribed  "  In  Memoriam," 
"  Lord,  I  have  viewed  this  world  over,  in  which  thou 
hast  set  me  ;  I  have  tried  how  this  and  that  thing  will 
fit  my  spirit,  and  the  design  of  my  creation,  and  can 
find  notliing  on  wliich  to  rest,  for  nothing  here  doth 
itself  rest ;  but  such  things  as  please  me  for  awhile  in 
some  degree,  vanish  and  flee  as  shadows  from  before 
me.  Lo  !  I  come  to  Thee  —  the  Eternal  Being  — 
the  Spring  of  Life — the  Centre  of  Rest  —  the  Stay 
of  the  Creation  —  the  Fulness  of  all  things.  I  join 
myself  to  Thee  ;  with  Thee  I  will  lead  my  hfe  and 
spend  my  days,  with  whom  I  am  to  dwell  for  ever, 
expecting,  when  my  little  time  is  over,  to  be  taken  up 
into  thine  own  eternity."  * 

*  From  a  deeply  interesting  account  of  Arthur  H.  Hallam,  in  the 
'<  North  British  Review,"  for  February,  1861. 
36 


DATE  DUE 

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GAYLORD 

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